When 'babymoon' holidays during pregnancy go wrong

By Julia Medew Health Editor

It is meant to be the last blissful holiday before the sleepless nights begin. But doctors say "babymoons" are going very wrong for some pregnant women, even when they are in Australia.

Dr Susan Ireland, of Townsville Hospital, said a handful of unlucky pregnant women taking interstate holidays in Far North Queensland every year got stuck there due to complications or premature birth.

Rachael and Craig Morgan with their baby William who was born 7 weeks premature while they were meant to be on holiday.Credit:Justin McManus

In one case, a woman holidaying on a Whitsunday Island delivered her baby in a helicopter at 27 weeks pregnant during a "hairy" emergency transfer to Mackay Base Hospital. The baby was later transferred to Townsville because it needed neonatal intensive care.

"Usually it's people who are having their first baby and they're 24 to 30 weeks' gestation. They're on that one last holiday before you get tied down by crying babies," she said.

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Illustration: Matt Golding.

While commercial airlines generally allow pregnant women with no diagnosed complications to fly up until 36 weeks' pregnancy, Dr Ireland, a neonatologist, said people should be aware that premature birth usually occurs without warning for most.

"One in nine babies are born prematurely before 37 weeks' and probably about one per cent under 30 weeks'," she said.

Professor Caroline De Costa, an obstetrician at James Cook University and Cairns Base Hospital, said she had also seen pregnant women with complications on interstate holidays. She said travelling up to 20 weeks' was ideal.

"Most people will be fine… but if you are going to holiday after that (20 weeks), you should try to be within reasonable distance of where you want to give birth," she said.

Melbourne couple Rachael and Craig Morgan recently found themselves confined to Townsville hospital for nearly three months after Rachael suffered a bleed at 23 weeks' on a holiday in Palm Cove, 26km north of Cairns.

When the bleed happened, the Morgans drove to Cairns where Rachael was diagnosed with placenta previa, a dangerous condition that affects one in 200 pregnancies. It involves the placenta becoming implanted at the bottom of the uterus over the cervix, so the baby cannot be born vaginally.

The next day she was airlifted to Townsville because of its capacity to care for premature babies under 30 weeks'. She remained there, staying mostly at Ronald McDonald House (a charity that helps accommodate families), until doctors insisted on a caesarean at 30 weeks' because of more bleeding.

After their son William was born, he remained in the neonatal intensive care unit for about a week. He was then cared for in another part of the hospital for another four weeks before he could fly home at five weeks old.

During their stay in Townsville, the Morgans said they received excellent care. But they were shocked to discover that their health insurance, Victorian ambulance membership and travel insurance attached to their credit cards did not offer them any chance to be transferred to a Melbourne hospital because it was not deemed an emergency.

Even when Townsville Hospital provided a nurse to escort them home on a commercial flight with William this month, Ambulance Victoria would not provide a transfer from Melbourne Airport to St Vincent's Private hospital where he needed to go for further care.

"They said it was not urgent, so we'd have to pay $1000," Mr Morgan said. "We also called our health insurer and they said 'no, not covered', so he ended up in Rachael's arms in the back of a taxi."

While the pair are now finally taking their precious first born son home, they said people should make sure they check their insurance thoroughly if they are going on a holiday.

Dr Ireland said while some people might think an international holiday would give them a better chance of being flown home through their travel insurance, a holiday to Bali, for example, would probably result in a flight to the closest Australian hospital, not your home city.